Deadhand
by Sage of the Chuchus
Summary: Sometimes even a hero gets discouraged to the point of giving up.


I wrote this to accompany a picture I drew. You can find in in my deviantart(link on my profile page) gallery under the title 'The Shadow Temple.'

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It was finally over.

Link slumped against the wall of the temple surrounded by the dry, cracked bones of the fallen, the master sword held limply in his hand dripping with discolored blood. All around him were the remains of who-knew how many failed battles and fallen would-be heroes. The walls were lined with human skulls and ribs and all manner of animal bones cemented to the wall in a mixture of fries mud and gore: The creatures trophies. Or perhaps the result of years trapped in a stinking pit without food while your flesh paled and rotted. Maybe even the Deadhand could get bored.

"Hey, Link. Are you alright?" Navi asked, the brightness in her tone not entirely masking the concern.

The hero gazed forlornly over the carcass, the bones, the blood, the hands stilled after so hard a fight, and really thought about that question. All within what felt like a few weeks he'd lost his father, his home, his _species, _seven whole years of his, as he recently discovered, limited life. He'd climbed mountains and felt the searing heat of magma inches from his skin, seen poes, fought horrible monsters. He'd sweat and bled and pushed and fought all for a girl he'd known less than an hour. Saria, his only friend through years of being an outcast, was residing in a different plain of existence, and now he felt weak enough to sink to his knees, head rested against parts of the dead.

He was nine years old, no matter how many years he'd been asleep. No child that young was meant to see this much. None except him, the chosen hero.

"I- I don't know, Navi." He muttered carefully, looking down at his bloody and dirt-stained tunic. The white undershirt he wore was a splotched mess of brown and red and singed black, his green tunic hardly faring better. He chose to wear the kokiri tunic whenever the goron and zora ones were not needed. He wore it to remember Saria and his home, how she and all the other kokiri were counting on him, and as a final reminder of the life he'd lost the moment he'd left the hidden forest clearing.

Navi's wings drooped, sensing the heavy burden on the ocarinist's mind. "Link, I know it's hard. I can't imagine how hard, but we have to keep going."

Blue eyes found the remains of Deadhand again, sunken and oozing onto the filthy ground. "So I can find another one of these things with eight hands? If I hadn't had these gauntlets I would have lost my hand to that thing, Navi. It left toothmarks in the leather." He looked up at the worried fairy, his eyes tired and fearful. He seemed almost vacant to the fairy, as if he were a puppet whose strings sagged when he wasn't in use, slumped and resolved to his part in the next show, controlled by some nameless being. Though he could give names to all his puppeteers. "If I had lost my arm then we'd be done, all of Hyrule would fall. We came within a thin layer of leather of that."

Unsure how to console the hero, Navi gave a half-hearted flutter. "Well, you'd still have your other arm…"

"I can't use a sword with my right hand. I was teased for years about being left-handed, believe me, I've tried adapting to use my right."

Navi thought for a moment. "Well, being left-handed offers an advantage, if nothing else. You're used to fighting right-handed enemies but they're caught off-guard by you."

"Deadhand didn't seem too phased." Link pushed himself off the wall and to his feet, sliding the master sword into its sheath without cleaning the thick blood from the blade. Navi was silent, unable to find any more words of comfort or anything of interest in the room.

"You know what would be nice?" Link asked, though Navi couldn't tell if he was addressing herself or the room or the Goddesses themselves. "If that sheikah would lend more than enigmatic words, a pretty tune, and a deku nut to-the-face now and then. I know he's fast and strong, yet it's too much to ask for him to actually lend a hand."

Navi drifted sadly behind her charge as he left the room and navigated the false walls and long halls towards the entrance of the temple. "Link, we've no way of knowing what Sheik is doing to help us when he's he's not here. For all we know he could be keeping back hoards of Ganondorf's minions or clearing traps in the temples ahead of us."

"Or he could be hiding out in a fountain with Miss Doesn't Need Clothes swapping tales of how stupid the hero is to go through all this alone."

For the second time since the Deadhand had given a last, agonized moan, Navi felt the sting of rejection. _I've been with you since the beginning. _She sighed internally. And she had been. She tried as hard as she could to help Link, pointing out dangers and anything she hoped could help him. She was an ear as much as she was a mouth, being the only person Link could vent to in times like these and sharing the only words of encouragement he could get on his lonely quest, but it sometimes seemed her help was unappreciated and her devotion might as well have been to a brick wall for all the thanks she got. "Link, whatever he's doing he'll continue to do it. There's nothing we can do to change that, but I think we should stop here for now. Go back to Kakariko and rest."

"I can't, Navi. I have to get to the creature haunting this temple and then find the Spirit medallion with no information or help." They emerged into the main entrance of the Shadow Temple and Link looked out at the door across a deep, wide pit. He pulled the hover boots from his pouch with near-robotic thoughtlessness.

"You're completely burnt out, Link. Please stop, just until morning. You'll do more harm than good exploring a temple like that. Deadhand is one of the hardest and scariest challenges you've had to face and you've fought him twice in one day, anyone would need a rest after that! Zelda, the goddesses, the sages, they'd all expect too much if they tried to push you forward right now.

For a moment Link was silent and still, his hands paused and ready to pull on the odd new boots, then his eyes closed in resignation and he dropped the winged atrocities. "Okay. Let's get out of here."

Navi perked up and waited patiently for him to pack away the boots, drifting around his head. "Okay! We'll find you a nice place to sleep. Hey! Maybe one of the townspeople will even lend you their beds…" She went on for a bit and Link listened patiently as he made his way out of the Shadow Temple.

As he emerged into the fresh moonlight Nav noticed he's already perked up a bit, the result of a realization he'd had.

"Navi, thank you. I'd be dead or insane without you by now."

The blue sprite felt overjoyed and flittered happily behind the hero. "You're welcome, Link. I'll be here to help you through anything best I can."


End file.
